I am excited to announce that I will be a Perfect Protein Blogger for the summer, to help promote a book called The Perfect Protein: The Fish Lovers Guide to Saving the Oceans and Feeding the World. Written by Andy Sharpless, the CEO of Oceana, and Suzannah Evans, the book discusses how protecting, maintaining, and consuming wild seafood can help to fight both famine and obesity globally.
I am only a few chapters in to the book and already find it fascinating. The general idea behind the book is to try to eat seafood, but to try to eat WLLS: Wild, Local, Little, and Shellfish. Many supermarkets, such as Whole Foods, label their seafood which makes sticking to these more sustainable choices a cinch. But even without the labels, you can still find sustainable options at your local grocer.
As a food blogger, I immediately went to the back of the book, where there are 21 sustainable seafood recipes from some of the nation’s top chefs. They all sounded delicious, but I decided to start off my Perfect Protein posts with a recipe that is simple but packs a ton of flavor into the dish: Sam Talbot’s Thai Coconut Mussels. I love making mussels because they cook up so quickly. This recipe takes about 30 minutes from start to finish. (For another take on mussels, check out my recipe for Mussels in White Wine Garlic Sauce)
I altered the recipe a bit to make it into a meal for 2 instead of an appetizer. I also subbed in some ingredients for what I could find. All of these ingredients can be found in Whole Foods.
Ingredients:
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 3 tablespoons peeled and grated fresh ginger
- 4 large garlic cloves, minced
- 1 shallot, finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons lemongrass
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened coconut
- 1 pound mussels, debearded, scrubbed well, and washed clean
- 1/3 cup dry white wine
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon fish sauce
- 1 teaspoon sambal (chile-garlic paste)
- 1 (13.6 oz) can coconut milk, divided
- 2 tablespoons torn cilantro leaves, stems discarded
- 2 tablespoons torn mint leaves, stems discarded
- juice and zest of 2 limes
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- 1/2 cup white rice, preferably jasmine rice